Description: Though Robert Malthus has never disappeared, he has been perpetually misunderstood. Robert Mayhew offers at once a major reassessment of Malthus's ideas and an intellectual history of the origins of modern debates about demography, resources, and the environment, giving historical depth to our current planetary concerns.
Brief description: Robert J. Mayhew is Professor of Historical Geography and Intellectual History at the University of Bristol.
Review Quotes: In his admirably rounded Malthus: The Life and Legacies of an Untimely Prophet Mayhew draws our attention to the actual writings of this pioneer of demography and political economy, and to his historical context, especially the revolutionary enthusiasm which Malthus was concerned to dampen... Though Malthus did not go so far as to interpret our planet as an ecosystem with limited supplies of clean air and water, Mayhew makes a convincing claim for him as a founder of what is now called environmental economics... [For] Mayhew, it is the questions Malthus asked which are still important.--Jonathan Benthall "Times Literary Supplement" (6/13/2014 12:00:00 AM)